Israelis mull next move in standoff

Hugh DelliosTribune foreign correspondent

Facing a U.S. demand to withdraw their tanks from Palestinian territory, the Israelis grappled Tuesday with the question of complying before achieving their stated goal of forcing the assassins of ultranationalist leader Rehavam Zeevi to be handed over.

Israeli officials began laying the groundwork Tuesday for declaring their unprecedented army offensive a success anyway. Army commanders said they were "pleased" that they had disrupted militant networks and killed some 20 alleged terrorists.

Defense analysts for Haaretz newspaper and other Israeli media said Tuesday that the army was considering a withdrawal within two days, beginning in the northern West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon originally had issued a stern ultimatum, saying troops would not withdraw from Bethlehem and five other West Bank cities until Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrested and extradited the radicals responsible for shooting Zeevi to death a week ago.

Arafat made it clear he would not and perhaps could not meet that demand.

`A leader has to take risks'

Sharon's envoys insisted Tuesday that he would hold Arafat to the ultimatum and that it was a test of whether the Palestinian leader is serious about cracking down on terrorists.

"We don't ask for things that are undoable," Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said in Washington.

"We [only] ask Palestinian leaders to exercise their responsibility. A leader has to take risks."

But other Israeli officials said they feared the incursions might backfire, souring U.S.-Israel relations while failing to bring international pressure on Arafat.

"We'll withdraw, but we'll withdraw under pressure and it will be interpreted as a failure," Yossi Sarid, Israel's left-wing opposition leader, told Israel Radio. "Once you are in, you are captured and it's very difficult and complicated to get out of the mess."

For a sixth day Tuesday, gun battles erupted between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the reoccupied parts of the West Bank.

Two Palestinians were killed in Tulkarem on Tuesday and The Associated Press reported another three killed early Wednesday, bringing the total number of dead to 34 Palestinians and one Israeli since this offensive began less than a week ago.

Peace march in city

Bethlehem enjoyed a brief respite from days of shootouts when Christian leaders, including a Vatican representative, led hundreds on a march for peace through the city. Israel pulled its tanks off the streets during the march, but the fighting resumed soon after it was over.

Just after dusk, about a dozen Israeli anti-tank rockets lit up the sky as they were fired at Palestinian positions, their booms heard all the way to Jerusalem.

Army bulldozers entered the city of Qalqilya and leveled the house of Saeed Hotari, the suicide bomber who killed 21 Israelis at a Tel Aviv disco in June. Late Monday, the man who allegedly armed Hotari, Hamas bombmaker Ayman Halaweh, died when his car exploded in Nablus.

Israeli officials said Tuesday that Halaweh was on their Top 10 most-wanted list, and was responsible for the deaths of 49 Israelis.

The Israelis said they know that four Palestinians were involved in Zeevi's assassination, and they claimed that the assailants escaped to Ramallah with the help of at least one of Arafat's security officers.

Officials claim that Arafat's police have been given their names. Palestinian officials deny it, alleging that the assassins were residents of East Jerusalem and therefore Israel's responsibility.

Faction leaders in hiding

Arafat's police say they have arrested up to 35 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine faction behind the assassination, but that its leaders have gone underground. Israeli officials have dismissed those efforts as a "joke."

Arafat's aides say the 1993 Oslo peace accords do not provide for extradition of suspects to Israel. Israeli officials say later agreements allow them to demand a "hand-over" if the Palestinians do not arrest a suspect, but that they hold little hope that Arafat would comply.

After a year of bloodshed in which at least 650 Palestinians have died, such a move would be seen as nearly treasonous on the Palestinian streets. Furthermore, Arafat already faces declining popularity and suspicions that he wants to surrender the intifada to please the United States.

Mobs prevent arrests

Earlier this month, his police shot and killed two Palestinian anti-U.S. protesters in Gaza. At least twice in recent weeks, stone-throwing mobs have prevented his security forces from arresting Palestinian radicals opposed to a cease-fire with Israel.

Alternatives to extradition might be found to help Israel save face. In the past, some suspected that the Palestinians and Israelis worked together in targeting and perhaps eliminating terrorists during the Oslo peace process.

"Arafat will never hand them over," said Khader Abu Abara, a Popular Front leader in Bethlehem. "He knows that no Palestinian will accept this."